The 2013 National Book Awards will be held tonight in New York City. All the finalists are great, but around here, we're pulling for George Saunders, who has had a special place in our heart ever since hearing him read "Offloading for Mrs. Schwartz" from CivilWarLand in Bad Decline.
Fiction Finalists --Rachel Kushner, The Flamethrowers --Jhumpa Lahiri, The Lowland --James McBride, The Good Lord Bird --Thomas Pynchon, Bleeding Edge --George Saunders, Tenth of December
Nonfiction Finalists --Jill Lepore, Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin --Wendy Lower, Hitler’s Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields --George Packer, The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America --Alan Taylor, The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832 --Lawrence Wright, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood & the Prison of Belief
Young Adult Literature Finalists --Kathi Appelt, The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp --Cynthia Kadohata, The Thing About Luck --Tom McNeal, Far Far Away --Meg Rosoff, Picture Me Gone --Gene Luen Yang, Boxers & Saints
Poetry Finalists --Frank Bidart, Metaphysical Dog --Lucie Brock-Broido, Stay, Illusion --Adrian Matejka, The Big Smoke --Matt Rasmussen, Black Aperture --Mary Szybist, Incarnadine: Poems